Evora 400 rusty hinge on front 'lid'

[Peegee355]

OK, 2 obvious questions for you all. Is there are a drain hole around here to stop the water pooling around the hinge? 

And, if I unbolt the hinge to clean it up, will the two bolts drop out and I'll need to take the front clam off to rescue them?!! 

[RichardC]

Despite trying to add a seal to the front edge of the hatch, I still get some water collecting there, but my hinge hasn't gone rusty yet, probably because I've been smearing it with rust inhibitor. I was contemplating drilling some drain holes but was worried what lies beneath. Would it be okay for water to drain down there?

[2011 Chrome Orange]

I don't recall if those nuts are captive or not. So, they may or may not drop and require clam removal for retrieval.

But, I believe a very small hole drilled in the VERY CORNER of the hatch opening (below the pollen filter trap door and in the corner so water does not pool on the pollen filter) would not be an issue based on what is below. Of course, do so at your own risk.

I would also use a drill stop to make sure you only drill through the clam and not any further.

[Peegee355]

That looks innocent enough 🙂

 

[KJD]

Service notes say the hinge is bolted to a studplate bonded to the clam so you should be ok.

[Peegee355]

1 hour ago, KJD said:

Service notes say the hinge is bolted to a studplate bonded to the clam so you should be ok.

Thank you! Will let you know.... 

[au-yt]

Thanks for being the guinea pig

[KJD]

On 09/05/2020 at 19:57, Peegee355 said:

Thank you! Will let you know.... 

Just loosen the nuts and see if the studs move.

I drilled drain holes in the corners of the hinge pocket on mine. No problem.

If you take off the pollen filter cover you can poke around and feel that there’s nothing underneath.

Chrome Orange’s pic is of an S1 Evora. The 400 is different.

Any water just joins the rest that goes in through the main grilles.

[Peegee355]

Wow - thank you.  That's my weekend job

Edited May 11, 2020 by Bibs

[LOTUSMAN33]

Thanks for posting I will be doing mine now as have same issue with trapped water after washing. 👍🏻
Dave  

[RichardC]

Drilled a couple of 2mm holes in mine today. The water isn't draining very well so I may have to enlarge them.

It's little design cock-ups like this that make Lotus what it is. The rust prone mudflap brackets is another one that anyone could have seen coming a mile off.

Looking on DeRoure, the hinge B132U0034F, got replaced with C132U0034F , and then D132U0034F. Any chance that they've upgraded it to stainless steel?

 

[Peegee355]

I would hope they've used plastic hinges!  There's hardly any weight to hold.  I've had mine open all week to really dry out, I'll take it apart at the weekend, Kurust it, drill some holes (larger than 2mm - thank you!) and slap it all back together. One serious upgrade.  I'm also replacing some screws at the back that have gone rusty.  Ace mechanic or wot  😉

[Peegee355]

All disassembled, cleaned up, painted and will go back in tomorrow.  The bolts are captive - hurrah!  But, Lotus secured one of them just off perpendicular so a real fight to remove the hinge 😞

[Miguel]

On 14/05/2020 at 21:25, RichardC said:

Drilled a couple of 2mm holes in mine today. The water isn't draining very well so I may have to enlarge them.

It's little design cock-ups like this that make Lotus what it is. The rust prone mudflap brackets is another one that anyone could have seen coming a mile off.

Looking on DeRoure, the hinge B132U0034F, got replaced with C132U0034F , and then D132U0034F. Any chance that they've upgraded it to stainless steel?

 

I made Stainless steel mudflap brackets, now sold on X8r, my next part was going to be the stainless steel hinge, unfortunately i had to sell my car so i have nothing to copy. If anyone has an old one i'll happily get it drawn up and manufacture something that will never rust.

[C8RKH]

Not that it helps but I've seen McLaren make the sense foobah's with soft steel that goes rusty in places too....

 

[RichardC]

10 hours ago, Miguel said:

I made Stainless steel mudflap brackets, now sold on X8r, my next part was going to be the stainless steel hinge, unfortunately i had to sell my car so i have nothing to copy. If anyone has an old one i'll happily get it drawn up and manufacture something that will never rust.

That would be great if you could get some made. I would certainly be interested in ordering a stainless hinge for my car.

There are also a couple brackets that support the rear diffuser that are already pretty rusty on my 3 year old Evora 400: I imagine that stainless versions of those would be a popular upgrade too.

[C8RKH]

How much more would it really cost to put in some proper brackets and screws? £50? £100? Why cannot Lotus just do it and put the extra cost on to the list price.  It would make a difference.

[Bibs]

@RichardC & @Miguel

I have a pair of those brackets still in their bags ready to be fitted to my car along with the Mansory cf diffuser. You're welcome to use the brackets for patterns before they go on my car if you wish?

[Miguel]

On 03/07/2020 at 19:04, C8RKH said:

How much more would it really cost to put in some proper brackets and screws? £50? £100? Why cannot Lotus just do it and put the extra cost on to the list price.  It would make a difference.

Honestly, it's probably no more expensive to just make them in stainless -the extra material cost is negated by the fact the parts don't have to be zinc plated (which offers very little extra protection IMO). 

 

On 07/07/2020 at 17:58, Bibs said:

@RichardC & @Miguel

I have a pair of those brackets still in their bags ready to be fitted to my car along with the Mansory cf diffuser. You're welcome to use the brackets for patterns before they go on my car if you wish?

hi Bibs, happy to get something modelled up, then send the originals back so you can fit. Would need them for a week or so i guess? 

[Bibs]

No probs - Pop me your address and I'll get them in the post

 

[C8RKH]

Thanks @Miguel - @Bibs maybe mention this on your test drive tomorrow!  It really would be a cost negligble thing and would do a lot to improve quality - nothing like seeing rusty bolts etc to put you off.

I remember seeing a McLaren 650S last summer that looked "tatty" due to the rust on exposed cheap metal and the image / perception had stuck with me.  Small things done often = large leaps

[trcm]

On 03/07/2020 at 19:04, C8RKH said:

How much more would it really cost to put in some proper brackets and screws? £50? £100? Why cannot Lotus just do it and put the extra cost on to the list price.  It would make a difference.

And all the rusty nuts and bolts too, can this very question be put to Lotus at the next annual LTF - Lotus campfire meeting ?

[Jason is Chasing]

I'm confused, it appears to me to be a pretty straight forward job, clam shell removal I imagine would make it a challenge (for me), it also appears to be a standard bracket, and I wonder how hard it would be to manufacture one or seal that area.  It's curious to me that there would be that much play given the cars origin climate to allow that much water.  Was the soft steal used for weight savings?  

[mg4lotus]

PeeGee confirmed that clam removal was not required on May 16th. Thank goodness.

[Peegee355]

The bolts were rock solid so no need to remove that clam. Shame they installed them at angle but just had to drill out one of the hinge holes a tad.